Higher English (again)

Can't wait for AH :thumbsup:

Reply 25

javjamoll

OP

1

Can anyone help me with Romeo and Juliet? Are the most likely questions to suit it be Characterisation, themes or key scenes?

Reply 26

ArcadiaHouse

17

LuhLah

Isn't it true that 70 of your marks aren't in the actual exam? So, you could still get an A even if you fail the exam?

I'm not sure, sorry. All I know is that it's going to be amazing. :woo:

Reply 27

TheUnbeliever

16

LuhLah

Isn't it true that 70 of your marks aren't in the actual exam? So, you could still get an A even if you fail the exam?

1) If you take the Creative Writing option, yes.
2) Er, nominally, perhaps. If you were to literally fail (rather than pass very badly), then I'm not convinced - it wouldn't surprise me if it was a course requirement.

Reply 28

akj08

12

TheUnbeliever

When in doubt, and especially if you haven't been taught it, just give the media section a shot, for kicks. Your teacher will love you for it.

Haha someone in my class did this in the prelim and got 2/25 :p:

We did SG in 3rd year, Int2 in 4th and higher in 5th (SG was a total waste of time) but was good cos we had 2 years of texts to choose from for the higher exam. I did lord of the flies and a robert browning poem, but also had loads of morgan and ted hughes poetry, the crucible, othello (but had no idea what to write on that) and quite a few short stories.

Reply 29

LuhLah

I'm fine with critical essays, we did one on "The Horses", my teacher always said use PEE when your doing critical essays.

That'll only get you so far - you probably won't get extremely high marks with that technique. If you have enough panache, you can get around it. Style is what pushes a 20-23 essay to 24-25.

Reply 30

zman

For drama I've got Death Of A salesman and All my Sons.
I'm more comfortable writing about All My Sons but we did that text last year and I'd like to try and improve my essays on Death of A Salesman,

For Prose we have two short stores, The Pedestrian and The Murderer by ray Bradbury.
We also have a non-fiction text, A hanging by George Orwell. I will be ecstatic if a question suitable for this comes up as I'm averaging around 20/25 for my essays on this text.

We've also looked at 'At grass' a poem by Phlip Larkin that I enjoy writing about...

Reply 31

Nonie No

'That'll only get you so far - you probably won't get extremely high marks with that technique. If you have enough panache, you can get around it. Style is what pushes a 20-23 essay to 24-25.'

That is true. According to the Principal Assessor for H English it's the original, stylish essays that score highest. But for most this does not come easy, and so they revert to a very structured response. As long as they meet the basic criteria on U A and E - and technical accuracy is 'sufficient' - then a pass is on the cards. :smile:

Reply 32

Couple of things to say... New marking instigated by the SQA now means that any essay which is deserving of above 20, is automatically a 25.

And next, with regard to the original post, my advice is to learn your bread and butter texts inside out. For me these are two of my poems and both of my short stories. I hate doing Romeo and Juliet which is my drama text so I am trying my best to stay well clear of it. Yes it is risky only learning two genre's better than the third, but I feel my texts are strong enough if the questions are, even in the slightest, generous. I have looked through every past paper and have found questions which I am relatively comfortable answering on my two preferred genres, so I am hoping the exam does not throw up to many surprises. Part of the fun I suppose... Good luck!

:biggrin:

Reply 33

Donald Gillies

Couple of things to say... New marking instigated by the SQA now means that any essay which is deserving of above 20, is automatically a 25.

What? That is the most idiotic thing ever.

Reply 34

OriginofSymmetry

What? That is the most idiotic thing ever.

Do you mean the rule, or me saying it? If what my school has been telling me is true, then it is true.

Reply 35

The rule. It doesn't sound entirely true.

They seem to be doing it because the pass marks are too low, not enough people are getting 50%+. So, awarding more marks will even it out.

But by doing this, the SQA are awarding people getting 20+ already, as opposed to those scraping a pass. So you're looking at bumping Bs up to As, or As to higher As. Not people not passing to passing.

Idiocy.

Reply 36

TheUnbeliever

16

OriginofSymmetry

What? That is the most idiotic thing ever.

Donald Gillies

Do you mean the rule, or me saying it? If what my school has been telling me is true, then it is true.

Your school exaggerates slightly. However, the changes were completely and utterly idiotic:

You may be scored (assuming you pass) as a Category I - IV.

I: Outstanding, awarded 25 marks
II: Very sound, awarded 21 or 23 marks.
III: Comfortable pass, awarded 17 or 19.
IV: Near pass, awarded 13 or 15.

If you fail, you an be scored as a Category V - VI.

V: Fails to achieve one of the specified criteria, sufficient technical accuracy or is too short; awarded 9 or 11.
VI: Serious shortcomings, described as 'very rare'; awarded 5 or 7.

You can be awarded below 5, but you'd need to have barely touched the paper with your pen.

Yes, they did indeed disregard essentially half of the discriminating information by making it impossible to award even marks above 4. On the other hand, it's now (in theory) easier to get 25. There were other important changes for poorer candidates (for example, trivial things which would get a mark before now don't). See last year's marking instructions for the gory details.

What's more infuriating is that they changed this about 3 days before our exam to apply to us. That made me a very unhappy panda (if I recall, I wrote very angry letters to both the SQA and the BBC :o:

).

Reply 37

TheUnbeliever

Your school exaggerates slightly. However, the changes were completely and utterly idiotic:

You may be scored (assuming you pass) as a Category I - IV.

I: Outstanding, awarded 25 marks
II: Very sound, awarded 21 or 23 marks.
III: Comfortable pass, awarded 17 or 19.
IV: Near pass, awarded 13 or 15.

If you fail, you an be scored as a Category V - VI.

V: Fails to achieve one of the specified criteria, sufficient technical accuracy or is too short; awarded 9 or 11.
VI: Serious shortcomings, described as 'very rare'; awarded 5 or 7.

You can be awarded below 5, but you'd need to have barely touched the paper with your pen.

Yes, they did indeed disregard essentially half of the discriminating information by making it impossible to award even marks above 4. On the other hand, it's now (in theory) easier to get 25. There were other important changes for poorer candidates (for example, trivial things which would get a mark before now don't). See last year's marking instructions for the gory details.

What's more infuriating is that they changed this about 3 days before our exam to apply to us. That made me a very unhappy panda (if I recall, I wrote very angry letters to both the SQA and the BBC :o:

).

"...(assuming you pass)" I love the confidence! Yeh, well anyway... it is all trivial. If you are good enough, then the marking scheme is irrelevant. Hard work is better than relying on the SQA haha! Without doubt!

:yep:

Reply 38

Donald Gillies

"...(assuming you pass)" I love the confidence! Yeh, well anyway... it is all trivial. If you are good enough, then the marking scheme is irrelevant. Hard work is better than relying on the SQA haha! Without doubt!

:yep:

That's the thing. People "good enough" won't struggle. It's the people who are relying on a pass (those not so good) to get into college/uni etc. who have the most bother with marking schemes - and rightly so, by the looks of it.

Reply 39